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This album has 3 maybe 4 very good songs and besides that a bunch of boring narration and meaningless orchestral interludes, preludes and postludes. A very disapointing album after a five years long wait. Manowar are slowly but surely going down the drain of heavy metal. Although I should't say that, they're hardly metal anymore.

I was pretty tickled by the idea of Manowar doing a concept album, let alone a series of them. The fast tracks like King Of Kings and Loki God Of Fire are good, although I agree that far too much of the album is taken up by narration.

Too much narration and orchestration, although the good tracks are worth it.

The worst Manowar album. Three good songs, none of which are that amazing, and then a whole bunch of narrative crap and badly done orchestration. Manowar has never known how to do epic, so this doesn't surprise me. Nevertheless, I have always looked to Manowar to deliver quality traditional metal, at least albums worthy of a 70 (and at many times, more) and they've always delivered. Very dissapointing, therefore.

25/100.

Let's not forget that Manowar have technically done "EPIC" before with "Achilles, Agony And Ecstasy In Eight Parts" from "The Triumph of Steel". That song was the most epic thing they have ever done. That track is 28 minutes long! The only difference between that song and what they are doing now is the orchestration stuff.

Keep in mind, Manowar have done almost everything they are capable of doing. I would have liked to see them do an album that returns to a form similar to that of "Battle Hymns" or even "Kings of Metal". "Gods of War" is the direction they have chosen so if fans can accept that, they can either get used to it or just forget them. I agree that the "Killing Songs" I listed are what save the album from being a total disaster. It's still pretty good for what it's worth, but nowhere near the albums I mentioned, as well as "Louder Than Hell"......

So, what I'm getting from this is that, basically, if I've had a hard time being interested by Manowar in the past, this is probably not the album that's going to change that.

I'm new in the forums. just wanted to say that this album is a major disappointment. I can't believe that Manowar are always claiming to be the ultimate metal band, and then they pull out this album which is very unmetal. absolutely boring and overlong.
please take look at the last Virgin Steele album, now that's epic and metal!!!

Welcome to the forums! I have to disagree with you though on the last Virgin Steele....that was no better than the new Manowar when you compare it to stuff like House of Atreaus Parts I and II and Invictus.

LOL i don't think i have the courage to listen to 73 minutes of Manowar...
A Little Manowar is cool but that is way too much.

However, it is better than the new Manowar when you compare it to the new Manowar

For some reason that Virgin Steele release never grabbed me and was easily forgettable. With me, the new Manowar has alot of memorable parts despite the slow tempos, narrations and symphonics. At some points I feel like I'm listening to books on tape or something

At first I was going around calling this Manowar of Fire, but in fact with all the interludes its like a completely lunk-headed Virgin Steele. Instead of short, tasteful piano/vocals segues between the songs that tie everything together, you get overblown keyboard/talk sessions that just drag the whole thing down. Its not even worth listening to for the good songs. A real disaster for Manowar.

To be honest, I haven't heard the Triumph of the Steel. Its something I'll have to check out. But in any case, if Manowar wants to go into a more epic direction, thats fine. What they have to do though is do it well and not fail completely, which is this album. Re the new Virgin Steele, I agree that that was a dissapointment, but its nowhere near as bad.

The new Virgin Steele its 10 times better than this, although i did like some of the songs on Gods Of War all that narration and interludes are almost unbearable 50/100 for me.

Triumph of The Steel its a good album the title song start great but it drags a lot, i mean there is like a 10 min drum solo on that song wtf?.

Radagast and Brahm pretty much summed up my thoughts on this album. If I was a reviewer at MR this would end up on my joke of the year list. It's just so much more than a disappointment. 30/100.

Manowar never said they were epic metal. Manowar always defined themselves as heavy metal, and they are indeed the embodiment of heavy metal. It's true that the new album has too many narrations and orchestrations, which can be attributed to the concept. However we're left with about 8 metal tracks which is pretty much what every Manowar album boils down to. It's not their best album to date, and I more or less agree with the 70/100 (for Manowar standards that is), but saying that they have Virgin Steele or Rhapsody influences is simply ridiculous. Manowar had sympho elements long before Rhapsody (who herald songs like Crown and the Ring or Kingdom Come as an influence to their overall style). As for Virgin Steele (who I love btw), they were always a band that copied Manowar, not the other way around (Invictus anyone?).

Anyway, I'm watching them live in Athens today (flew all the way from Cyprus and I'm pretty psyched), I'll tell you how the gig went!!

Well the orchestrations are cheesy the songs are cheesy. I love it.

Its Manowar

So how was it?

That's part of what's so disappointing - its the imitated becoming the imitator. Manowar doing an overblown version of an overblown copy of their own framework. Anyway, regardless of who took influence from whom, the point stands: this album is utterly ridiculous.